UNE Barbarians have maintained their dominant season, defeating St Albert’s College 27-6, to win their first premiership in the APJ Law New England Rugby competition 27-6 at Bellevue Oval on Saturday.
The first half was all the Barbarians, who held onto possession and camped themselves in the Albies half. When Albies did get the ball they quickly kicked to get themselves out of their own half, however any attacks they did manage to make against the Barbarians were short lived, with too many handling errors. The barbarians scored twice through standout playmaker Keith Ellis and Dan Raye in the first half, with no conversions and Albies were lucky to stay in contact, with two penalty kicks awarded; Barbarians led 10-6 going into the half-time break.
In the second half, Albies led a spirited attack on the Barbarians’ line. With good field position and numerous attacking runs, Albies looked like they could score. However the Barbarians weren’t the standout team all year for no reason and weathered the attack, leaving Albies with no rewards.
The few times the Barbarians had the ball they capitalised and scored another 17 unanswered points to take the win and the premiership.
Barbarians Captain Sam Piddington was overjoyed with his team’s performance and believed the family that is the UNE Barbarians has contributed greatly to their success this year.
“It has been such a roller coaster for the last five years and I am ecstatic with the win,” said Sam.
“The boys just dug in deep.
“We are not just a club, we are a family, we do so much together and this means so much to me and our family, it is just everything.”
The Barbarians conceded no tries to Albies, with St Albert’s only points two penalties.
“Our defence has been rock solid this year and it is all about attitude,” said Sam.
St Albert’s coach Greg Wood was proud of his boys but knew they were up against it with an in-form Barbarians outfit.
“We were happy to be in the final but today we were comprehensively outplayed by a team that has pretty much performed all year,” said Greg.
“We have no excuses but there always has to be a loser and today that was us.
“They were too strong in defence and put a lot of pressure on us and finished up coughing up the ball.
“All credit goes to BaaBaas they played the perfect grand final.”
